"Officer... Officer, please spare me..."
Seeing that the emotional route seemed ineffective, Louis Das, who was pressed firmly to the ground by the guards, could only beg her in the lowest posture.
"I... will never dare to falsely claim to be your father again... I... as long as you can spare this dog's life, I'll do anything!"
"Hehe..."
Caroline sneered and turned away.
"For someone like you, all emotions are just things used to serve your own selfish desires..."
"Whether it was your deep affection for my mother back then, or the 'fatherly love' you showed me just now, or even the cowardice you're showing now... every single bit of it is for your own selfish desires!"
"As long as it conflicts with your selfish desires... you'll sever any emotions related to you without hesitation!"
"Compared to heartless people, someone like you who uses emotions as tools is even more disgusting!"
"Someone like you... what right do you have to stand before me?"
Speaking to this point, Caroline didn't even have the desire to turn back and look at him.
She just said indifferently:
"Guards... arrest this suspect who disrupted market order."
"Yes!"
After responding, the two soldiers knocked Louis Das unconscious without even giving him a chance to speak.
Looking at Louis Das who had been knocked unconscious by the guards, Ileina said indifferently:
"Take him to the central prison."
As the two soldiers dragged Louis Das to the central prison, this matter was finally completely over...
Elashia just watched all this happen from the side, her gaze seeming somewhat dazed...
...
"Oh my... I really didn't expect my emotions to be so calm when dealing with that guy."
Caroline, who could still see worry in her companions' eyes, smiled:
"This time... I'm not pretending to be relaxed."
"I'll never have to see that guy again, so this can be considered a beautiful end to my inner turmoil!"
Even though Caroline appeared so normal, Adeline still looked at her with some concern and asked:
"Caroline... is everything really okay..."
She was very afraid that this matter would still become Caroline's nightmare afterward.
Knowing that Adeline was worried about her, Caroline smiled brightly:
"Oh my! If I were to be troubled by such a bastard, that would be such a loss..."
"Besides... I don't particularly hate him, after all, my childhood wasn't that miserable, was it?"
Caroline smiled and looked at Elashia.
"When I was little, I at least had everyone in the slums taking care of me together, which was much better than Your Majesty Elashia..."
"Instead of worrying about me, Adeline, you should worry about Your Majesty Elashia..."
"You..."
Adeline somewhat helplessly tapped Caroline's forehead lightly.
Upon hearing Caroline mention Elashia's past, she had almost reflexively wanted to knock Caroline's head hard...
"..."
However... unexpectedly for everyone—this time Elashia showed no expression or reaction, as if she were thinking about something...
Ileina was the first to notice something was wrong with Elashia.
"Shia? What's wrong?"
She gently patted Elashia's back.
But Elashia still had no reaction at all...
Caroline, realizing that Elashia's condition was off, even rushed to Elashia's front in a fluster without waiting for Adeline's reminder.
"Your Majesty Elashia! I... I didn't mean to..."
Seeing that Elashia still had no reaction, Caroline, feeling inexplicably panicked, hurriedly grabbed Elashia's small hand.
"Your Majesty Elashia... I was wrong! I was wrong..."
"Ah?"
After her hand was grabbed, Elashia finally came back to her senses from her thoughts.
"I'm fine..."
She quickly waved at Caroline.
"I'm fine..."
"Shia... you've seemed very off since just now... what's wrong?"
Ileina looked at Elashia with concern and asked:
"You seemed quite calm when we just returned to the Government Hall... what's going on?"
Caroline, immediately seeing that Elashia seemed to have something on her mind, quickly asked apologetically:
"Your Majesty Elashia... did my words just now hurt you..."
"I'm really sorry... I..."
"Really... I already said it's not that."
Elashia gently touched Caroline's shoulder.
"I'm just... thinking about things."
"Things?"
Ileina seemed to understand something and asked Elashia carefully:
"Shia... are you thinking about His Majesty the Iron Emperor?"
Elashia's small face turned red when Ileina hit upon her thoughts.
"How did you guess that..."
Elashia scratched her head somewhat embarrassedly.
Earlier, when she heard Caroline angrily rebuke Louis Das with "you can abandon all your emotions for your own selfish desires," she inexplicably thought of Alexandra.
If she remembered correctly... the previous Alexandra also seemed capable of abandoning all emotions belonging to her for humanity's future...
If saving humanity's great cause could be classified as Alexandra's selfish desire, it seemed like her old mom and Louis Das had become almost the same kind of person?
But... in Elashia's heart, she could never connect her favorite Alexandra from the game with that hateful Louis Das...
But... what exactly was the difference between them... Elashia really couldn't figure it out for the moment.
"Shia..."
Looking at Elashia immersed in her thoughts, Ileina's expression gradually became serious.
"Shia, your question is something I've seriously thought about in the past too."
Looking at Caroline and Adeline beside her, Ileina smiled somewhat helplessly:
"Among us... probably except for Adeline... we all have some conflicts with our parents."
"Caroline's biological father is such scum, His Majesty the Iron Emperor gave birth to you with the purpose of using you and then ignored you, and as for me, needless to say..."
Ileina smiled self-deprecatingly:
"Maybe the next time I meet her will be when we have to fight to the death..."
As her words continued, Ileina's expression became increasingly serious.
"As for how we should treat them, this is a question I've thought about for a long time..."
"Objectively speaking, they've all committed almost unforgivable wrongs against us in the past."
"In my view, whether our relationships with family members can be restored mainly depends on two points."
"One is whether they truly recognize their mistakes. If they're still like that Louis Das bastard even now, we have absolutely no possibility of forgiving them."
"After satisfying this prerequisite, the question becomes whether we want to reestablish mother-daughter relationships with them in our hearts..."
Ileina looked at Elashia seriously.
"So... Shia, do you want to do this?"